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		Fri, Jan 04, 2008 The Straits Times
Tourist robbed, hurt at JB carpark
A SHOPPING trip to Johor Baru went wrong for a Singaporean woman and her two Indonesian guests when one of them was robbed by a motorcyclist at a shopping mall carpark last Sunday. Ticketing officer Jamiah Sirat, 58, and Indonesians Ms Meilani Koesmadji, 43, and her mother Madam Yvonne Koesmadji, 61, were walking towards their car after shopping at Jaya Jusco Permas, near Pasir Gudang, when the robber struck. He snatched Ms Meilani's handbag and dragged her along for over 10m before speeding off. She had scratches on her arms, abdomen and face.

Besides her and her mother's passports and identity cards, she also lost $350, five million rupiah (S$770), two ATM cards, six credit cards, two mobile phones and a digital camera. She made a police report in Johor.

Her woes did not end there. The Indonesian consulate in JB was closed over the New Year holiday period. So she had to stay for three nights at the Johor home of Madam Jamiah's relative before she could get a temporary passport issued on Wednesday.

Madam Jamiah said she regretted suggesting the Johor trip to her friends of over 20 years, who were visiting after a decade.

'This was my first trip to JB in four years. I hadn't dared to go there after reading newspaper reports on the crime rate but braved myself,' she said. 'It was my Indonesian friends' first time to JB and this had to happen to us. We will never go there again.'